Not the right lyrics but the refrain is the same. We live like clichés: daughter leaving for college, we weep, we anguish, and we sever ourselves from ourselves to get past the pain. We cheer ourselves with thoughts of new beginnings and circle of life and metamorphoses, butterflies growing beautiful, upward flight past us.
It feels trite and real at the same time. Our lives have been captured in too many Hallmark poem-lets for sale.
I have anticipated this moment in my dreams (nightmares) since she was born, different shapes and scenery, but all the same theme: leaving.
She’s leaving home. Off to college, which will be her new temporary home in a new state. Whether the leaving is temporary or permanent is yet unknown.
In the meantime, I will be shoring up for the next one’s departure, estimated time of departure, two years or twenty.
In the gaze of the other 